ENGLAND AGRI WORKERS LOSE OUT ON PAY - AGAIN

 

Unite helps boost agricultural workers’ pay in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as young

English workers again lose out heavily

 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2023 

Unite remains committed to restoring the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) in England and where it was scrapped by the Tory-Liberal Democratic Coalition Government in 2013.

The move left thousands of workers in England without union representation over wages and conditions and with no way of knowing when they might next receive a pay increase. 

The result has been that as the only part of the UK where agricultural workers are not covered by a collective bargaining structure then English workers, especially younger ones, have lost out badly.

Unite is represented on the AWB in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the reps have done a good job this year in negotiating greater rewards for agricultural workers.

In Scotland the new rates for the AWB mean the pay rate is £10.42 for workers of all ages except for employees who have agreed, as part of the terms of their contract of employment, to study an SCQF Level 4 and/or SCQF Level 5 or equivalent in Agriculture/Horticulture, shall be paid £6.53 per hour for 18 months. This rate applies to apprentices under 19 years of age and those of 19 years or over in the first year of their apprenticeship. Following this period, the minimum hourly rate will be £10.42 until 31 March 2024.

In Wales an agricultural worker aged 16-17 years earns a minimum of £5.28 an hour, 18-20 years £7.49 an hour, 21-22 years £10.23 and 23 years plus earns £10.74.

In Northern Ireland, where six Unite members sit on the 15-man board, it has proved possible to negotiate an 8.5% increase all grades from 1 April. The lowest pay rate per hour is £7.54 for the first 40 weeks and £8.13 after the qualifying period expires. At 23, the minimum pay rate of £10.92 exceeds the national minimum wage rate of £10.42 by 50 pence.

In England the rates of pay per hour are £5.28 for those 16-17, £7.49 for 18-20-year-olds and £10.18 for those aged 21 to 22 and £10.42 an hour on reaching 23 years of age.

What this translates into is that in Scotland an agricultural worker aged 16 to 23 will earn £416.80 for a 40-hour week and £21,673.60 annually.

 In England a 20-year-old will get £299.60 a week and £15,579.20 annually. Good on the Scots. In Northern Ireland a worker aged 23+ will earn £436.80 a week for 40 hours whilst his English counterpart will be paid £416.80 whilst in Wales it will be £429.60.

Of course, in addition to the existence of the AWB’s helping to secure incomes for workers well above the bare minimum under the national minimum wage; there are also additional benefits because AWB’s still exist outside England. These include guaranteeing overtime pay at 1.5 times the standard rate of pay and providing enhanced levels of sick and holiday pay and entitlements.

The drop in living standards for agricultural workers in England is exactly what UNITE predicted nine years ago.

A UNITE survey in 2014 found that just 56 per cent of those previously covered by the AWB had had a pay rise. This was despite a third asking for one. Those that did get a pay rise had received less than the whole economy average. 82 per cent had any pay rise imposed by their employer, destroying the government and employers earlier claims that abolishing the AWB would free employees to conduct individual negotiations with their employer.

The survey also revealed that no sick pay was being paid by some employers, who had also added an extra hour to the working week before overtime was paid.

So, thanks Nick Clegg and David Cameron for making English agricultural workers a whole lot better off than those in other parts of the United Kingdom.